In flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Thessalonians 1:8)

Why Men Are Lost

Ultimately the reason men are lost is because they reject the grace of God. But Paul points out two specific reasons why men will be lost in the judgment of the Lord. The conclusion outlines how men will be saved. The basic need for man is to believe in God. Coming to know God is found in the invisible features of God found in the world about us. In Paul’s letter to Rome he illustrates the manner the Creator has revealed Himself to man through the agency of nature. No man can use the excuse they could not know God because His thumbprint is everywhere.

Man cannot know the character of God through the natural word but it will lead him to seek God. This helps to answer the question of how a man can be saved. He cannot obey the gospel if he does not know God first. Coming to this knowledge then he will learn of the Son of God through the gospel. Believing in God does not guarantee the acceptance of the story of Jesus. The only way God has revealed the story of His Son to man is through the written word. God can be known through creation but Jesus can only be known through the revealed message. When a man learns of Jesus and believes He is the Son of God then he will find salvation. It is through the written word that one finds the truth the God they found in creation is also Jesus Christ.

Men reject salvation because they will not believe in God and even accepting the knowledge of God will reject the story of His Son. Salvation will only come to those who embrace the knowledge of a powerful Creator who reveals Himself through the written word so that all men can come to the knowledge of His Son and redemption through His blood. Written upon the pages of holy scrip the message of God’s grace, mercy and love is evident because of Christ’s love for all men to die for them. The conclusion: no one will have an excuse in the day God judges all men.

I never beheld them (the heavens filled with stars) that I do not feel I am looking in the face of God. I can see how it might be possible for a man to look down upon the earth and be an atheist – but I cannot conceive how he could look up into the heavens and say “there is no God.” (Abraham Lincoln)